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07 November 2014

A mapping thunderstorm in Bilwi

Crowdsourcing geo information at the Carribean Coast

Last week Porifrio and myself, as
members of the OpenStreetMap Nicaragua community, traveled to Bilwi,
Puerto Cabezas, the
capital of the Autonomous Region of the Northern Caribbean Coast. The
trip was made possible with the support by UNICEF
Nicaragua, which we highly appreciate. We
were for four days in Bilwi to present the OpenStreetMap
Nicaragua initiative and build alliances with
interested groups and institutions.

Besides smaller presentations and meetings, we had three very successful
workshops with around hundred attendees. Most people were coming from
the two local universities (URACCAN and
BICU), the local Free Software Community,
Bilwi and a social and
ecological start-up called KAIKS. All together we mapped extensively
Bilwi within only a few
days:

This is a great example of the power of
community
and open technologies when they become available to everybody. And this
is just the beginning. Having geographic data available empowers the
people then to improve their lives, visualize and perceive their
environment in a more constructive and creative way. The very motivated
Free Software Community in Bilwi immediately organized an follow-up
event.